Other forms of representation can be combined with section drawings to create useful interpretations of a building.
For example, a sectional perspective drawing combines a two-dimensional section drawing with a three-dimensional perspective drawing. This can create a powerful image that suggests how the internal spaces within the building can be used.
Physical models that are built in the form of a sectional cut can also allow the inside of a proposed building to be better understood. Creating a series of sectional models can fully explain a complex scheme and its relationship to the surrounding landscape or environment. Hinged sectional models can be opened and closed to reveal the internal spaces in a building.
Project: Chattock House Location: Newport, UK Architect: John Pardey Architects Date: 2007
These long and short section drawings are taken through the plan drawings of the scheme and relate the architecture to the landscape and immediate surroundings. The section drawings need to be read in conjunction with the plan.
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Plans > Sections > Elevations |
Project: Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture (right) Location: Nanjing, China Architect: Steven Holl Architects Date: 2004
Models are very effective means of exploring the sectional idea of a building. They can be photographed to create a series of views (shown here is a perspective view into the space and a long sectional view). This sectional model describes how light enters into the building and the connections between various floor levels of the interior spaces.
In architectural terms, an elevation drawing describes the vertical plane of a building or space. An elevation drawing can be an external view (for example, of a building or street), or an internal one (for example, of a room).
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Project: Chattock House Location: Newport, Wales Architect: John Pardey Architects Date: 2007 |
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This drawing describes the west elevation of the scheme and also provides heights to relate the building to its landscape levels. Figures in the drawing allow the relative scale of the building to be understood and the shading suggests shadow from overhanging elements of the roof. |
The elevation is the interface between the inside and the outside of a building. Buildings can be designed from the outside to the inside by using the elevation to generate the internal plan. However, most architects usually begin the design process with the plan, and the elevation drawings are created in response to it. This means that elevation drawings are often drawn and redrawn as the plan evolves so that design decisions can be understood and connected to the external form.
Elevation drawings are normally labelled with the direction that the elevation faces, (so the south elevation is south facing, the north elevation is north facing and so on). This connects the elevations directly to the orientation of the plan, and immediately allows an understanding of how the sunlight will affect the building over the course of the day and with the change of the seasons.
Project: HM Dockyard Location: Portsmouth, UK Architects: Colin Stansfield Smith and John Pardey Architects Date: 2005
These are elevation drawings of an existing building and proposed scheme. Shown at the top is the south-east elevation drawing and beneath is the internal elevation drawing.
Both images are carefully hand drawn and considered, using a variety of line weights to describe the different aspects of the architecture. There is a clear line hierarchy in each drawing.